Theology Loses Face

The May 2006 edition of First Things contained an excellent series of articles under the title, "Theology as Knowledge." The authors of these articles all agree that theology has unfairly been relegated to opinion, emotion, and fancy within the walls of the university. Theology is not considered an examination of truth about God. The authors of these articles are also unanimous in their concern for the detrimental effects such an unfair judgment has on the intellectual life of the university, of politics, or law, and of culture as a whole.

I certainly agree with these theses. However, I have to wonder of part of the blame for the de-intellectualization of theology lies with Christians. How many times have I heard on Christian and Catholic radio something like, "You don't need intelligence to have faith," or, "Intelligent people aren't necessarily holy people"? While these statements are true, there is a boatload of implications underneath them that are very problematic. I even caught Father Corapi exclaiming, "Some people are too intelligent for their own good." Christians have done it to themselves, or at least they have bought into the attitude handed to them by the university intelligentsia. Either way Christians are perpetuating the myth that theology is not intellectual.
Is too much intelligence really a problem? Sure, intelligent people say stupid things. Intelligent people deny truth. Is the problem with these people their intelligence? I don't understand how the virtue of being able to discern truth can be evil, if all truth comes from God. The problem with these people is much more likely pride. Pride can distort and twist any virtue. Intelligence is not the enemy.

Why do Christians vilify intelligence? A large part of it is that evangelists and apologists don't want the intellectual rigors of theology to scare people away. Most people do not feel that they are intelligent enough to handle real theology. They are intimidated by big words and abstract ideas. If evangelists and apologists get too enmeshed in intellectualizing, they run the risk of alienating their audience. So, to keep their audience comfortable, evangelists and apologists trivialize intelligence in the realm of faith. They focus on simple ideas and on a Franciscan style of faith in action. Unfortunately, by keeping their audience comfortable they separate intelligence from theology. They make faith into blind belief and emotional response.
Our world needs St. Francis. However, it also needs St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas. Evangelists and apologists need to find ways to respect their audience's intellectual inhibitions without trivializing intelligence and theology. In fact, an important part of evangelism and apologetics needs to be building respect for the relationship between faith and reason, and building confidence in people's ability to understand theological concepts.

The loss of respect for theology as an intellectual discipline is part of our cultural decline into relativism. However, Christians need to acknowledge their own role in perpetuating the myth. They need to play a key role in reclaiming the realm of the intellect for theology.